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louisxyz's avatar
louisxyz
Helpful | Level 5
1 month ago
Solved

How can I remove the Dropbox contextual menu items on Mac?

Macox, any version, I cannot remove the Dropbox contextual menu. Another thread on this topic is marked "Solved" but no solution is included, only a request to submit the request. Has a solution been...
desktop
Mac
  • louisxyz's avatar
    louisxyz
    1 month ago

    Thanks MaxwellRogue for the advice. I wasn't sufficiently systematic to do you or Hannah​ justice, for I've discovered a few facts (and my problem is resolved):

    1. my instance of Tahoe doesn't display your path to Finder Extensions, but a System Settings search on "extensions" led me to the Dropbox extensions "i" button
    2. it appears that by default that extension is turned off...don't know why, perhaps I had earlier run some kind of terminal command; if I set it on, it goes back off on reboot (or Finder relaunch)
    3. and this leads to the realization that the Dropbox context menu appears only when I'm using the Finder in the Dropbox share; none of my local files/folders display the menu on right-click--and I'm fine with the context menu in Dropbox

    Much ado about nothing 🤔 Louis

MaxwellRogue's avatar
MaxwellRogue
Explorer | Level 3
1 month ago

On macOS, the Dropbox right-click menu items come from its Finder extension, so you don’t need to uninstall Dropbox to remove them. Open System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS), go to Privacy & Security, then Extensions, open Finder Extensions, and uncheck Dropbox. After that, relaunch Finder by right-clicking it in the Dock while holding the Option key and selecting Relaunch. If the menu still shows up, fully quit Dropbox and repeat the steps, or log out and back into macOS. This removes the contextual menu items while keeping Dropbox itself working.

louisxyz's avatar
louisxyz
Helpful | Level 5
1 month ago

Thanks MaxwellRogue for the advice. I wasn't sufficiently systematic to do you or Hannah​ justice, for I've discovered a few facts (and my problem is resolved):

  1. my instance of Tahoe doesn't display your path to Finder Extensions, but a System Settings search on "extensions" led me to the Dropbox extensions "i" button
  2. it appears that by default that extension is turned off...don't know why, perhaps I had earlier run some kind of terminal command; if I set it on, it goes back off on reboot (or Finder relaunch)
  3. and this leads to the realization that the Dropbox context menu appears only when I'm using the Finder in the Dropbox share; none of my local files/folders display the menu on right-click--and I'm fine with the context menu in Dropbox

Much ado about nothing 🤔 Louis

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